01/16, 10:55pm

Reader: Samsung quietly releases 10.1 drivers

A MacNN reader notes that Samsung has quietly updated its laser printer drivers to work with Mac OS X v10.1. "On Tuesday (Jan. 15) I checked Samsung's site for print drivers and found a prominent link that took me to [a page] which has an all-in-one download for their laser printers and is listed as having been updated "Jan, 15th, 2002." The description still calls it a beta, but the system requirements are now Mac OS X 10.1"

01/16, 10:45pm

Earnings \"On the Money;\" hope on new iMac

osOpinion columnist Dave Ficks has posted an opinion piece on the new iMac's outlook for success. Although many compare the latest iMac to the ill-fated G4 Cube, the author thinks the opposite "In fact, I believe it is a lot more like the original iMac then it is the Cube -- and may thus be destined for the same level of success." osOpinion has also posted a recap of today's earnings report from Apple, where the company announced profits significantly higher than first quarter of fiscal 2001.

01/16, 10:35pm

Visual PHP editor updated

See Jane Code has updated its visual PHP editor, JaneBUILDER v1.5. New features include improved external database logic, search enhancements, bug fixes and cosmetic upgrades; pricing is $50, but a trial version is available.

01/16, 8:45pm

Classic games released for Mac OS

Digital Leisure has announced seven of its arcade titles for DVD, including Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, are now compatible with Mac OS X 10.1. In addition, a Mac version of the world's first holographic video game, Hologram Time Traveler, has been included in the $40 DVD game package.

01/16, 7:35pm

Toshiba ships new 10GB, 20GB 1.8\" drives

Toshiba today announced "mini drives" in both 10GB and 20GB sizes. The 1.8-inch embedded hard disk drives measure 54 mm wide and 78.5 mm deep, and weigh 51 and 62 grams respectively: "[they] are smaller than a credit card and lighter than a traditional pager." Toshiba says the 20GB HDD will begin shipping in early February, while the 10GB HDD will ship in early March.

01/16, 6:10pm

AOL hikes BYOA access plan price

America Online has raised prices for its 'Bring Your Own Access' plan by $5 per month (now $15/month beginning in March), accordng to MacNN reader Jeff Melrose, who emailed AOL with concerns about the price hike: "As a member who does not need 2 hours of free roaming, and has not seen a new X.0 AOL client introduced for the Mac OS in several years, I am quite displeased that you have chosen to hike the prices."

Powell uses TiBook aboard Air Force One

01/16, 5:00pm

MS settlement in public comment period

According to a Salon.com article, the United States Justice Department is looking to the public to give comments on the proposed Microsoft antitrust settlement: "The Justice Department settlement is currently in a public comment period mandated by a law known as the Tunney Act. Through Jan. 28 the public is invited to send in comments on the proposal. (You can also e-mail them, with "Microsoft Settlement" in the subject line.)"

01/16, 4:55pm

Apple highlights financials, retail stores

At today's conference call, Apple's CFO Fred Anderson highlighted Apple's strong financial position in the December quarte and talked about the company's retail stores, current quarter financials, and future outlook for the year.

01/16, 4:50pm

Galactica multiplayer enters beta

Monkey Byte today announced that Galactica Multiplayer has entered beta testing. The MonkeyByte.com team, in partnership with Sacred Tree software, have launched GalacticaOnline (GOA) as a support tool for the multiplayer version of the game.

01/16, 4:35pm

Apple sees very strong new-product

Apple has seen the strongest new-product demand for the redesigned iMac desktop computer since the original iMac was launched about three years ago, according to CFO Fred Anderson, who also reinterated that it would ship at the end of the month and that demand had outstripped Apple's expectations.

01/16, 4:20pm

Bugs fixed in OmniDiskSweeper v1.2

The Omni Group has released OmniDiskSweeper v1.2, an update that fixes several bugs discovered by users, including a resizing error. Version 1.2 also brings clickable links in the About panel and a new blue Omni logo. OmniDiskSweeper can be used for free to find large files on your disks, but in order to unlock the "delete" button, users must pay a $15 registration fee.

01/16, 3:30pm

Apple posts $38M profit on revenues of $1.38B

Apple met analysts expectations, posting a net profit of $38 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $195 million, or $.58 per diluted share, in the year ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $1.38 billion, up 37 percent from the year ago quarter, and gross margins were 30.7 percent, compared to -2.1 percent in the year ago quarter. International sales accounted for 48 percent of the December quarter revenues. A one-time $24 million restructuring charge related to reductions in staff, information systems and administrative functions was off-set by a $23 millio gain from equity investments. Apple reported it shipped 746,000 Macs during the quarter and sold more than 125,000 iPods in the first two months. It is targeting March quarter revenues to be up sequentially to about $1.5 billion and EPS (earnings per share) to be approximately flat with the December quarter ($0.11 per share), about $0.02 ahead of analysts' estimates, according to MSNBC.

01/16, 3:10pm

Tech news: Sony phasing out tablet PCs

c|net is reporting that Sony will begin to phase out its line of pen-tablet PCs after disappointing sales. The Pentium-based computers, which started at $2500, came with a touch screen that allowed users to directly manipulate the GUI with a stylus. "The demise of the Pen Tablet line underscores the difficulty that manufacturers face in trying to bring new technologies to market." Earlier in the year, many Mac fans speculated that Apple would introduce a tablet-style Mac.

01/16, 2:35pm

Macintosh Explorer 3.0 has new preferences

Macintosh Explorer 3.0 is an update to the advanced file browser and file management tool that offers a hierarchical overview of files and folders; the $15 shareware allows you to store links to commonly used files, view invisible
files as you browse as well as fully customize its appearance and behavior. Upgrades from 1.x are $7. [Classic, Carbon]

Roxio releases Toast Titanium 5.1.1 updater

01/16, 1:40pm

AirPort Base Station util for Windows

Apple has posted its AirPort Admin Utility for Windows, an unsupported development version of the AirPort Base Station and AirPort network administration tool. It allows you to configure Apple's dual-Ethernet AirPort Base Station, offering the ability to create wireless networks as well as control over advanced base station settings such as channel frequency, closed networks, base station density, multicast rate, DHCP lease time, access control, or port mapping. It will not work with older "graphite" versions of the AirPort base station.

01/16, 1:35pm

Apple posts hardware docs on new 14.1\" iBook

Apple has posted updated hardware documentation on the new 14.1" iBooks, which has several interesting features, including a 100MHz system bus, a higher-capacity battery with eight lithium-ion cells rated at 56-Watt hour (vs 42Wh) with up to 6 hours of battery life, and a slightly heavier form factor at 5.99 lbs (vs. 4.9lbs). [updated]

01/16, 12:45pm

Delays affect (some) early G4 iMac orders

Several readers report that early orders of the G4 iMac have been delayed beyond the initial "end of January" time-frame quoted by Steve Jobs: "I placed an order the day the iMac came out. I just called Apple to check the status and they are saying 3-5 weeks--not just for new orders like it says on the website but for all orders." (It is unclear whether manufacturing/production issues or aggressive launch dates by Apple caused the delay in early shipments.)

01/16, 12:25pm

Radio Userland 8.0 offers easy web publishing

Userland's new $40 personal publishing software, Radio UserLand 8.0, offers a full suite of tools for building personal websites, including "hosting, your own URL, a news reader that gathers news from top news sites and weblogs, browser-based editing that's super easy, a complete development environment, and one-button 'push-it-and-read-it' publishing." [Classic, Carbon]

01/16, 12:05pm

WriteCD-RW! Pro 3.0 supports Mt. Rainier

Software Architects announced it will release WriteCD-RW! Pro 3.0 for Mac OS 8/9. The $70 application reads and writes discs formatted in new "Mt. Rainier" Format (CD-MRW" format) drives via drag n' drop: "Mt. Rainier specification CD-MRW drives are now shipping in Japan and are expected to be shipped to the US in Q1. Legacy file system utilities for standard CD-RW do not support new Mt. Rainier features and functionality. Mt. Rainier formatted discs cannot be read by standard CD-RW software. WriteCD-RW! Pro provides everything you need to format, read, write and transfer discs with Mt. Rainer and standard CD-RW drives." It is expected to ship in February.

01/16, 11:50am

Hitatchi introduces new 17\" LCD display

Hitachi has added a new value-priced 17" LCD monitor ($820) to its line of flat screen displays. The new CML170+ provides support for both digital and analog signals and includes enhancements in the areas of brightness, contrast and resolution (up to 1280x1024 at 75 or 60Hz). it will be available Ivory (CML170+, immediately available) and Black/midnight gray (CML170B+, second week of February).

01/16, 11:10am

Ambrosia releases Coldstone gaming engine

Ambrosia has released its Coldstone game engine, which "brings professional-quality game building tools to the masses. No programming is required to produce polished, stand-alone games that run on Mac OS, OS X, and Windows." A demo of the $50 application is available online.

01/16, 10:20am

Macromedia Shockwave Studio 8.5.1 update

Macromedia's Director Shockwave Studio 8.5.1 updater brings anti-aliasing as well as OS X playback support to the authoring environment for creating 3D entertainment, interactive product demonstrations, and online learning applications for the Web, CD, DVD and corporate intranets. One reader followed-up on the release:

The release notes report OS X playback as limited to a new OS X version of Shockwave running in IE 5.1.3, and requires at least OS X 10.1.1. Macromedia does not yet provide native Projectors, nor will they officially 'support' running in the Classic environment. [updated]

01/16, 10:05am

IPNetSentry 1.3.3 fixes port scan reporting

Sustainable Softworks' IPNetSentry 1.3.3 is a maintenance release to its $35 personal firewall software, offering bug fixes for a memory leak and incorrect reports of port scans from Windows machines starting up on the local network.

01/16, 9:10am

Discreet ships combustion 2 animation tool

Autodesk's Discreet today announced it is shipping combustion 2, the latest version of its paint, animation and 3D compositing software. Version 2 provides new multi-format project capabilities for film and video (including 64-bit image-processing), advanced film grain tools and color Look-Up Table (LUT) management as well as new toolsets such as a fully editable, interactive schematic view; a fully integrated 2D particle system, and an expanded interactive text and motion graphics module. The $4,500 application is available for $3,500 through the end of the month; upgrades are $800 through May 2002 ($1,500 afterwards).

01/16, 9:00am

Consumer Reports: no online access for Macs

Shelley Huston notes that Consumer Reports does not allow Mac users to participate in its online survey: When I received the email telling me to register yesterday (1/16/02), I learned that Mac users can't do the survey online. What a bummer."

01/16, 8:50am

ExpresionTools releases Shade Personal R5/E

ExpressionTools has released Shade Personal R5/E, an English language version of its high-end 3D graphics application. The $500 application has functional specifications equivalent to the Japanese product and contains an online PDF manual in English (printed manual is available separately for $90). A demo is available online.

01/16, 8:50am

Free license of ChatNet to Mac Manager users

ELS, Inc. is offering the Personal Edition of its ChatNet software free to all registered users of Mac Manager through February 15, 2002. ChatNet offers two modes for chat.--an IRC Mode which allows chat and file transfer through an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Server and an AppleTalk Mode, which allows multiple Macs computers running ChatNet to chat or send files on a Local Area Network, with or without a Server. it includes ChatGuardian and ChatWatcher preferences for control over the ChatNet environment.